by Gregory A. Hall, The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal

Major distribution companies like GSI Commerce and UPS are struggling to fill jobs to ship holiday orders.

UPS still had 200 openings paying $8.50 per hour on four shifts this week, three months after setting out to hire 1,000 temporary workers. The shipping company also is offering employees $150 bonuses for referring new hires, who also get the bonus.

Nationally, UPS also has struggled somewhat to find temporary holiday workers this year. Five thousand of its 55,000 seasonal positions are still vacant, company spokeswoman Susan Rosenberg said. Shortages are especially acute in Long Island and New Jersey, where Superstorm Sandy displaced many of UPS's usual holiday workers and the carrier must compete for employees with storm-relief efforts.

Worker shortages also are pronounced in several areas where UPS faces more competition for temporary staffers, including Nashville; Austin, Texas; northern Virginia; the northern Dallas area; and Oklahoma City.

FedEx spokeswoman Jenny Robertson said the company has not had problems filling holiday openings this year.

GSI Commerce, an eBay subsidiary that has handled online retail sales for other companies such as Bath and Body Works, Burberry and Dick's Sporting Goods, has warehouses in Louisville, the suburb of Shepherdsville and Northern Kentucky. It needs 300 people here and is offering attendance- and performance-based bonuses, in addition to a $50 bonus for referrals. All shifts are available, and pay ranges from $9.25 to $10.50 an hour.

Amazon is offering up to $12 per hour for jobs at its new Jeffersonville, Ind., warehouse, where positions in gift wrapping, shipping, packing and receiving are available, according to the website for Amazon's hiring agency.

"At this point, every distribution center in the area is hiring," said John Richie of Kelly Services in Louisville, which handles recruitment for GSI Commerce. The 300 positions that Kelly is seeking to fill for GSI Commerce are likely to increase because of an unexpected boost in business at the Shepherdsville warehouse.

Ethan Bates of Brandenburg, Ky., applied Thursday at GSI Commerce and was hired to start today. Bates said he had returned to rural Meade County after losing his job at a granite countertop fabricating company in Alabama.

"Obviously, nobody can afford $6,000 countertops anymore," Bates said. He said he has bounced around between temporary jobs but hopes the GSI Commerce position can lead to a year-round position. "I like distribution-type settings and I heard it was a very good place to work from some friends that have been employees for about a decade now."

Competing for workers

The UPS Worldport sorting hub at Louisville International Airport has attracted dozens of companies to the region to be close to the facility. Many of them, like UPS itself, are trying to fill spots to handle the holiday rush.

"This year it is more of a challenge than it has been in past years," UPS spokesman Mike Mangeot said of the company's own hiring difficulties. "The hiring pool does not seem to be as great."

That may be a reflection of the number of distribution companies in the Louisville area, rather than a surge in the local economy, Mangeot said.

"We have attracted so many companies to come to the area and bring jobs here that they are competing for some of the same workers that we would like to have out in our hub," he said.

The 1,000 seasonal jobs at UPS are an increase of at least 200 from recent years. UPS plans to continue hiring until Christmas or until all the spots are filled, and end dates will vary although the seasonal positions end by year's end, Mangeot said.

"This is probably the largest number of seasonal hires that we've ever done," he said.

UPS has shifted more of its sorting to Louisville from other regional hubs because he said the work is done more efficiently here. The company expects to handle a record 527 million packages systemwide between Thanksgiving and Christmas, a 10 percent increase from last year's record that Mangeot said is attributable to the shift from in-store buying to online commerce.

"About a third of all shoppers will do their Christmas business this year online," he said. And when consumers shop online, someone has to ship the presents.

Kelly's Richie said he agrees Louisville has more logistics jobs right now than people to fill them.

Richie said he's trying to "find what the disconnect is, because definitely from last year to this year there's a huge difference, yet the unemployment rate is not very different. I mean it's lower now, but it's not lower by a lot, so definitely the market is definitely different."

The unemployment rate in the 13-county Louisville metro area was 7.5 percent in October, down 1.5 percentage points from a year earlier.

The temporary nature of the jobs is a particular hurdle since some people receiving unemployment benefits risk losing money for the period they're working for what may be only a short-term job.

"I think companies have to be competitive, so I think that holistically means offering competitive pay as well as all of the other intangibles that individuals look for when they're looking for employment, which means benefits, security - meaning that opportunity for year-round employment," Richie said.

He said he believes GSI is competitive, particularly since a "large percentage" of the temporary hires will get year-round employment. The duration of the temporary work is flexible because the holiday rush is followed by a returns and exchanges rush.

Better-paying jobs

Business professor Uric Dufrene of Indiana University Southeast in New Albany, Ind., who follows local economic trends, said the unfilled openings are because of both an improved economy and a perception that if so many lower-paying distribution center jobs are available, some better opportunities might be coming.

Dufrene said the rates being offered in the seasonal jobs he reviewed are slightly more than what would be considered the poverty level for three-person families, which is $19,090, if the seasonal pay is extended to a full year without overtime.

Since the recession, most of the Louisville region's job growth has been in lower-wage positions, Dufrene said.

Part of the issue may be that last year more people last year were piecing together lower-paying jobs like these, or taking an extra job to pay bills, and now don't have to, Dufrene said. But part of the issue also is pay levels for temporary jobs having difficulty competing with available permanent positions.

Other, better-paying jobs are opening up in health care and transportation, according to Michael Gritton, executive director of KentuckianaWorks, the government-financed training and job placement agency for Louisville and its nearby Kentucky counties.

"We're working really hard to try to meet the needs of moving and storage companies because the moving industry is starting to see business improve and they need more drivers and crew leaders," Gritton said, noting that those jobs pay $40,000 a year and up. "If we could get 250 people trained by the end of April, I've got jobs waiting for all 250."

He said suppliers for Ford Motor Co., which has two Louisville plants, and General Electric Co. are adding people, in addition to ongoing needs in health care. As an example, Gritton said health care providers have had 650 postings for nurses in the past three months.

"The market is starting to improve, and now we're seeing employers who are demanding skills," Gritton said.